HINT Newsletter

Lending Growth and Forex Gains Raise OTP Q2 Profits by 47%

The second-quarter after-tax profit of Hungary's OTP Bank has jumped by 46.6% to HUF 74.3 billion from the same period a year earlier, boosted by lending growth and big forex gains, the bank said in its consolidated IFRS report for the period, published on August 14th 2008.

OTP Bank's stock of loans to clients has risen 23.6% to HUF 6,163.5 billion in the 12 months leading to June 30th 2008. The bank also recorded a HUF 10.1 billion unrealized forex gain in Q2, a gain of more than ten times on the same period a year earlier, as the forint appreciated markedly against the euro and the Swiss franc.

Excluding the effect of open forex positions, dividends and net cash transfers, after-tax profit continued its strong rise, increasing by 29.5% to HUF 63.9 billion.